


What Will The Morning Sun Be Like?

by Just_Another_Story



Category: Persona 3, Persona Series
Genre: Bonding, Character Study, Conversations, Dreamsharing, Friendship, Gen, Includes some headcanons for the MC's past, Self-Reflection, Takes place in January
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-04
Updated: 2019-06-04
Packaged: 2020-04-07 23:22:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19095109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Just_Another_Story/pseuds/Just_Another_Story
Summary: Their last chance to move on was slowly approaching.Their greatest challenge yet.Fighting for the salvation of the entire world.Yet a particular girl couldn't help but ask herself what would the aftermath of the result they desire be.





	What Will The Morning Sun Be Like?

Just like that, he had vanished.

 

**Best wishes in the coming year. That’s what you say on New Year’s Eve, right?**

 

Midnight is just around the corner, he said.

 

Only one month left, SEES would fight together against the end of it all.

 

Even if they had no chance of winning, they would take the risk.

 

Living the best they could and train for the coming of the great mother.

 

To work hard and create a future for everyone was their mission, their friendship had become family.

 

If they did win, the hidden secret that brought them together will disappear and a true beginning would start.

 

But what would such a beginning look like?

 

That particular thought was spinning relentlessly inside the mind of one particular girl as the teacher continued telling everyone to not fall to the lies of the cult that had formed in the city.

 

If they did win, what would come after?

 

She did the natural thing once the class had ended and they entered lunch break: asking them.

 

                                                                                      

* * *

 

 

 

“Well, of course we’re all going to continue with our studies at Gekkoukan, it’ll be like always! Just…without all the Tartarus stuff, hopefully…” said Yukari.

 

Junpei had a specific plan, however – “As for yours truly, I decided next year I am starting a baseball club! It’s going to be awesome like – just imagine us out in the field! The crowd shouting ‘Junpei! Junpei!’ as the man, the legend, Junpei Iori hits the ball with all his might!”

 

Yukari seemed annoyed at this however, as always, she felt the need to make a comeback to Junpei’s usual delusional antics.

 

“Yeah, like that would ever happen! Plus, who would even be interested in a baseball club? Even more, a club leaded by YOU?”

 

“Hey! No need to hit me with that negativity! You don’t know if things will work out or not unless you try, I mean…we’re trying to do something maybe impossible but we ain’t turning back now. Actually, is there anything you want to do after graduation, Yuka-tan?”

 

She seemed rather hesitant, she was thinking her answer quite thoroughly. “Hmmm...well honestly, I don’t know...I think I’d like to go to college, but if anything, I would just love to become an actress or something, just getting on stage and telling a story through me…”

 

“And then you say –I’m– the one with crazy dreams!”

 

 

_Dreams…_

 

 

That particular word stood out, what the girl understood for a “dream” was a series of imaginary events happening in one’s mind during sleep, what did it have to do with anything?

 

“Yukari-san, Junpei-san, what do you mean by ‘dreams’?”

 

“You know, like, things you really wanna do?” Junpei answered.

 

Yukari continued with the explanation. “Yeah like, becoming a pro at something or achieving something hard. A lot of people have dreams they work hard to make true. Fuuka for example, I heard her say she wants to become an engineer!”

 

“Like fixing machines and stuff?! Fuuka?! But she’s so tiny and weak…Maybe she’s more powerful than she lets on?!” Yukari seemed irritated at Junpei’s excessive surprise, it seems as if their usual back and forth banter was going to start. However, the girl was still curious, she couldn’t help but keep asking.

 

“Do our other friends have those dreams too?” She wanted to know more about her precious friends she now realizes she knows so little.

 

Yukari let go of her annoyance in response to her question and started thinking again. “Well, I know Mitsuru is taking over the Kirijo group, but I’m not sure if it’s as much of a ‘dream’ as an obligation, she really has a lot on her plate and doesn’t seem to know any better….”

 

“Yeah, I also heard Akihiko-senpai is going to study to become a police officer” —Junpei continued— “He wants to help people and stuff! Man, with things like this you wouldn’t expect him to be such a dork, huh? I guess his dream is just being able to protect others.”

 

Koromaru was more similar to Akihiko than she had imagined, after the loss of his master, he had devoted himself to protect his loved ones so it would never happen again.

 

“I don’t know if Ken has one though, but he’s still a kid, he’s got plenty time to figure it out!”

 

Yukari chuckled. “I bet he has all his life figured out already, we all know how mature he is for just a fifth grader, unlike you Junpei! ...I wonder if what happened with Aragaki-senpai will hinder him though...”

 

Aragaki Shinjiro.

 

They saw him die, but the girl didn’t fully understand it at the time.

 

Shinjiro was a talented cook, the girl couldn’t help but wonder if it was related to his dream. However, it seems whatever dream that was will never be reached…

 

Humans chase these dreams, but what happens when those dreams become unreachable?

 

That boy…

 

He comes to mind as the girl asks herself this.

 

Always so close but so far away, she promised to be by his side. But the more aware she became, the more she realized the many factors that standed between them.

 

A human and a machine created for war.

 

She was both a human girl and a weapon, an unnatural being yet something the members of SEES treated as one of their own.

 

Even in these thoughts, the girl, Aigis, tried to remind herself that even if she has become something different from what she was intended to be, there are people who support her and cherish her the way she is.

 

But she couldn’t help to wonder about that boy.

 

When she met him, he stood out. She knew there was something special about him even if she couldn’t pinpoint the cause, and that cause turned out to be something much more horrifying than just an identification malfunction.

 

Even when she wasn’t sure why she was so attached to him, he stood out. All of the other people around them were lively and expressive, yet he remained quiet while his face ever cold and unchanged.

 

Looking back, the two of them were never too different. Back then, you wouldn’t be able to say that either of them lived, they were just beings coasting through the ever changing world—existing, because people wanted them to exist.

 

Her to fulfil a purpose, but as for him, it was hard to tell.

 

Coincidentally enough, that person suddenly became the conversation topic.

 

Yukari suddenly remembered one person they didn’t mention yet, so she resumed the conversation.

 

“Speaking of dreams, I wonder what our moody leader has in mind for the future.”

 

“Well I mean, he probably…actually I have no idea. Now that I think about it, he doesn’t talk about himself a whole lot, doesn’t he?” It seemed that Junpei was also at a loss when it came to the boy with earphones.

 

“Yeah, it’s strange…I think I can count how many facts about him I know in one hand…Makes me feel guilty, since he’s helped us all so much…” Yukari said, in a rather sad tone.

 

He always listened to everyone’s problems, yet always kept quiet about his own. Only now did Aigis seem to realize this. But why was that? Did he not trust with his secrets the people he trusted with his survival in Tartarus?

 

Once again she found herself looking for answers.

 

“I think I’ll be going now, thank you for spending time with me.” She said goodbye to them in a hurry as she leaves to find that person.

 

“Hey! What’s the hurry?!”—Junpei yelled as Aigis left— “What’s the big deal leaving us all of a sudden…?”

 

“Come on, don’t get like that...maybe she just remembered something! She’s still learning the ropes of being human and all, so let’s just give her some time…”

 

                                                                                       

* * *

 

 

Everyone else seemed so complex to Aigis.

 

He was no different.

 

Their field leader certainly was an interesting individual, possessing a power that no one else had, and remained calm in even the most stressful situations. But she could feel there was more to it.

 

Back then she simply discarded it as irrelevant or beyond her comprehension.

_You have always helped me, so please, let me get to know you as well…_

She wandered around the school, asking for people’s indications and checking every corner looking for that boy. She found herself on the rooftop, just where she wanted to be.

 

The boy was standing alone, looking at the ocean through the bars, surprisingly enough he wasn’t using the earphones perpetually hanging from his neck. She realized he hadn’t put them on in quite some time, in fact.

 

“…Aigis…? Is something wrong…?” he seemed to notice her almost immediately.

 

“Oh, nothing’s wrong, really…!” She suddenly felt unable to simply ask, at first she had clear what she wanted to know: How did he feel? What would he do in a new tomorrow if defeating Nyx did stop the fall?

 

How was it that something so simple suddenly felt so difficult?

 

She tried to come up with a way to start the conversation “Why are you here, all by yourself?” She asked.

 

“I guess…Sometimes I just wish to be alone” He replied softly.

 

“I see…sorry to bother you.”

 

“No, you aren’t a bother at all, really…!”

 

It goes quiet again.

 

In that silence, Aigis tries to break her hesitance and ask her question.

 

“If it isn’t too much of a problem...may I ask…”

 

“Hmm?”

 

“...Do you have a ‘dream’?”

 

He went quiet for a second, eyes open in surprise.

 

She started worrying she might have said something hurtful in some way.

 

But those thoughts ceased as his expression relaxed and he spoke up again.

 

“A dream…like an ambition? Or something I want to dedicate to?”

 

“Correct.” –Aigis answered. – “I have been thinking a lot lately, about what will happen after the final battle. I accepted that our chances of winning are very low but, suddenly I can’t help but ask myself ‘what if’, what would a world where we win look like? Junpei-san and Yukari-san have plans of their own, dreams for their adulthood. And I wanted to know your perspective on the matter.”

 

He stared at her with something of curiosity in his eyes. Aigis was expectant of his answer. She wanted to know him a little more. But now it was him hesitating.

 

It was surprising, Aigis had never seen him like this. As if he was deciding if to respond or not, she started feeling worried.

 

After some time, his expression loosened. He let out a sigh and started talking once again.

 

“…Aigis, is it ok if I simply tell you the truth…I think I don’t need to constantly hold it in anymore. I trust you.”

 

He trusted Aigis.

 

She felt something growing within her, she could feel her bond with him being strengthened.

 

“Before meeting everyone, my life was really empty. Swinging back and forth with emotions I couldn’t truly understand, before knowing it, suddenly I found myself resenting life…”

 

“Resenting life…?” She was a bit shocked, but then she remembered.

 

The cult, yearning for the great mother and tainting the city with their poison.

 

Ikutsuki, who believed in death as release from an imperfect world.

 

Was he also like them at one point?

 

“I know…I didn’t know any better back then, after my parents died, I had recurring nightmares of their faces burning, and also experiencing the Dark Hour all by myself. I felt so alone…I became unable to connect with other people.” He paused for a moment, and his eyes shifted to the ground. “…I didn’t know how to process all of the feelings…the other kids started ignoring me because I was strange to them, and my relatives started thinking of me as troublesome…the memories are vague.”

 

Their leader was hiding all of this for so long. At that moment, he confessed his own burdens to Aigis.

 

She didn’t know what to think, she could only imagine how these experiences felt for him. She used to think families were naturally accepting and supportive of their own, but it seems she was mistaken.

 

“I started asking myself why did I even exist, but I couldn’t come up with any answers. At the same time, my worldview started becoming worse…I thought that the world was an awful place full of nothing but dumb, selfish people. I started hating everyone and myself without knowing. And these feelings accumulated until they ended up becoming something else.”

 

His eyes were full of shame and regret, perhaps remembering this was painful for him, and Aigis seemed shaken by that pain. The idea of being left alone in this world, and losing all hope for the future.

 

The mere thought made her faux heart ache.

 

“For the longest time, I started thinking that being alive itself was a punishment. A punishment for being the sole survivor. I started thinking that people around me were nothing but an obstacle, that they have nothing to do with me and that I shouldn’t care about them…I stopped caring about anything…I suddenly wasn’t human anymore.”

 

He paused again and slowly turned at the sky, Aigis’ eyes following his movements.

 

“At first, I only accepted being in SEES because I had no reason to refuse, but suddenly, people started trusting me with their lives…They started including me despite that they had all the reasons not to because I was their teammate. As time passed, I slowly learned more about everyone and saw how truly complex and varied people are…I started growing curious and finding myself talking with all sorts of people...learning about each of them, their troubles and their perspectives on…everything really, started making me feel truly alive. Hearing to what everyone had to say, and looking back on things, made my worldview turn upside down. Seeing them come and go made me realize how important living truly is...”

 

Aigis found herself speaking up once again, guided by her own heart. “I believe I understand. Before meeting everyone, I was nothing but a machine following orders, yet, seeing everyone laugh, yell, cry together, seeing them fight for their lives…made me wish to live like them too. I would not know how to explain why but, the idea of a simple life where every day can be like that makes me feel fulfilled. Is it the same for you?”

 

He was surprised, another connection was formed. They were alike, their struggles and thoughts seemed to interconnect.

 

“Yeah, I have realized that life is full of many possibilities, I won’t forgive myself for taking it all so cynically…This world and its people are full of so much potential, and I want to do whatever I can to ensure it prospers and changes for the better, somehow.”

 

“Yes, please…in the battle ahead, rely on me. I’ll do my best to protect everyone. And through it all, I promise to stay by your side, no matter what may come.”

 

Aigis felt her heart growing as his face morphed into a smile, gentle and bright unlike she had ever seen.

 

From now on, they would fight the odds and create a bright future for everyone.

 

“It’s a promise.”

 

                                                                                     

* * *

 

 

 

Life is frail and feeling, making it the much more worth protecting.

 

“You know, I’ve decided that if we make it through, I want to somehow help people that felt like I did…guide them to a better tomorrow.”

 

“What do you mean by that?”

 

“...How about we make a promise, to make ourselves more motivated? I’ll tell you what I have in mind after we win, of course, you’ll have to tell me what you want to do with your life as well.”

 

One last oath in that special place, before the decisive battle that will soon follow.

 

“Yes, I promise.”

 

“Haha...alright, it will be our secret.”

 

                                                                                 

* * *

 

_It was a lie._

_This world is a lie._

_Why did you have to leave us, just like that?_

_Please. Don’t leave me behind…._

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Welp there goes my first attempt at fanfic.
> 
> I love these two so much.
> 
> Hope the MC didn't end up too talkative tho...
> 
> Anyways, please give me feedback in things I can improve on!


End file.
